New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Will shooting of Newtown bear affect laws?
NEWTOWN — Nearly two weeks after an offduty police officer shot and killed a bear and orphaned its two cubs on his Newtown property, state Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, RNewtown, is still fielding multiple phone calls and emails about the incident each day.
Affectionately known as “Bobbi,” the now-deceased bear and her two cubs were a common sight for residents, with many patronizing a Facebook page created in her name and used to collect photos of her frequent sightings.
Among the unknowns tied to the incident are what impact, if any, the shooting will have on a yearslong legislative discussion over laws regulating the circumstances under which the shooting of a bear is legal or justified — the dialogue continuing even as wider questions await over what impact, if any, allowing a property owner to hunt and kill a bear might have on mitigating the frequency of what wildlife experts call “human-bear conflicts.”
Current statues make it illegal to kill a bear but say a property owner may take lethal means against a wild animal if it poses a safety threat or it is actively killing livestock.
In those circumstances, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection investigates the killing to determine if it was justified, a spokesperson for the agency told Hearst Connecticut Media.
If the killing is found to be illegal, the individual responsible can face fines, imprisonment or both, and have their hunting license suspended or revoked.
“A small number of bears are killed every year in Connecticut when they pose a public safety threat or are actively killing livestock,” DEEP spokesman Will Healey said in an email. He did not provide exact numbers.
Earlier this year, a proposed bill sought to provide a legal avenue for property owners, specifically farmers, to gain approval from DEEP to kill a bear if they can show it has caused property damage or has killed livestock.
Rep. Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, supported the proposed legislation, which failed to make it out of a committee vote, describing it as a “last resort” measure for individuals who exhausted other means of safeguarding their property.
“If the bear is just minding its own business, DEEP is not going to give you a permit to shoot it, you have to demonstrate: 1. that the bear has damaged your property or your livestock, and 2. you have made attempts to prevent that from occurring, and despite those attempts they continue to do that,” Harding said of the proposed bill.
“That’s the only way, under the bill that I supported, DEEP would even issue a permit to shoot the bear. It’s not like an open hunting season or anything like that.”
Bolinsky, however, opposes the bill. Existing law already allows “mechanisms” for the “protection of human life and property.” Nor do his constituents support the bill.
“From a perspective of representation, I take it very seriously when my constituents yell loud and clear, by the hundreds, that ‘thou shall not hunt bears in Newtown,” he said.
“Newtown is a very special community,” Bolinsky added. “We are folks that are kind and we don’t want firearms being discharged in our town.”
In 2018, DEEP estimated there were approximately 800 black bears in the state with a growth rate of about 10 percent each year, with information on its website noting the animals began returning to the state in the 1980s, following a gradual recovery of forest land in the state, which had been cut extensively beginning in the 1800s.
Data on the DEEP website shows a map of where bear sightings are reported each year. As of Friday, the agency reported 2,460 total sightings so far in 2022. Of those sightings, 194 came from cities and towns in Fairfield County.
At 227 reported bear sightings so far this year, Simsbury registered as the municipality with the most sightings of the animals.
“In northwest corner Facebook groups almost daily you will see humanbear interactions. If not human-bear, livestock-bear, or just bears being in society in somebody’s back yard or their porch,” Harding said.
“It is a daily issue and the part to understand, obviously you don’t want the bear to lose their life but if they are killing other animals, at some point you have to protect the other animals.”